Official's Volatile Visit Incites Racial Tension on Catholic Campus
by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
March 22, 2005
(AgapePress) - A controversial speech by New Jersey Secretary of State Regena Thomas has created a charged atmosphere of racial tension at a South Jersey Catholic school.Thomas recently visited Pope Paul VI High School in Haddon Township to give a speech on the Department of State's "V-Free Program," a youth initiative designed to combat violence, vandalism and victimization by encouraging student relationships and leadership. However, Thomas reportedly launched into a verbal tirade against the students, lambasting one for not knowing his black history facts, while calling others "ignorant white folk" and insinuating that they were racists.
Donna Harris, an alumna of Pope Paul VI, is a math teacher and girls varsity basketball coach at the school. She believes the students were startled not only by Thomas' topic but by her confrontational manner, and many in the audience became offended when the state official started yelling loudly into a microphone at them.
After the incident, Harris says she allowed the students she teaches "to vent whatever they had to say" and she feels most of their remarks "were very valid" responses to the way the students felt they had been treated by Thomas. "Most of them felt insulted and intimidated in some respects," the math teacher says, "and it was because of the way she was speaking to them."
Up until what she describes as the "inflammatory and accusatory" speech by Thomas, Harris says she was not aware of any problems with race relations on the school campus. But the appearance by the New Jersey secretary of state left many students and faculty angry and upset. According to local media, some students walked out of the speech in protest, and several parents called the school afterward to complain about having their children subjected to the speaker's harshly critical rant.
Also, among a number of troubling things in Thomas' speech was a point she tried to make equating the Michael Jackson trial and the Martha Stewart case, Harris says. That, she suspects, may be where the guest speaker completely lost her audience.
"I think the kids really realized that her credibility was damaged with that," Harris says. "I think that was the last thing she spoke of, the last thing the kids remember; and I think they thought it was way off base. It was like comparing apples to oranges."
Thomas has issued a statement since her appearance at Pope Paul VI. In it, she noted that she is passionate about the topic of diversity and wanted to raise the level of awareness, but did not intend to be personal or critical of the students or the school. Nevertheless, many feathers ruffled that day have yet to be smoothed. According to local media reports, officials with the Diocese of Camden spent time listening to people on the different sides of the issue and found that a majority of the students and parents with whom they spoke were offended by the speech.
For that reason, the Diocese determined to send a communication to the secretary of state expressing its feeling that her tone was inappropriate for a high school setting, and informing the official that most of the students felt disrespected by her speech. Meanwhile, Harris believes it would be best if Secretary Thomas, given her penchant for incendiary remarks and her loud, accusatory tone, were never invited to speak on the campus of Pope Paul VI High School again.
